In photographic processing of color photographic materials, a demand for reducing processing time has been increasing in order to cope with the recent demands for shortening the date of delivery of finished photographic materials and for reducing labor at laboratories. Reduction in processing time for each processing step has generally been achieved by increasing the processing temperature or increasing the rate of replenishment. In addition, many other approaches have been made, including enhanced stirring or use of various accelerators.
To speed up color development and/or to reduce replenishment rate, it is known to use a color photographic material containing a silver chloride emulsion in place of a silver bromide or silver iodide emulsion that has been widely employed. For example, International Publication WO 87-04534 discloses a method of rapidly developing a color photographic material containing a high silver chloride emulsion with a color developer containing substantially neither sulfite ion nor benzyl alcohol.
It has turned out, however, that when development processing according to the above-described method is carried out using an automatic developing machine, photographic characteristics, particularly minimum density, vary, sometimes resulting in serious stain of the white background.
Rapid development processing utilizing a high silver chloride color photographic material thus involves a serious problem in terms of a variation of photographic characteristics, and a solution to these problems has been keenly desired.
In rapid development using a high silver chloride color photographic material, use of an organic antifoggant to thereby reduce variation of photographic characteristics (especially fog) through continuous processing as described in JP-A-58-95345 and JP-A-59-232342 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application") has been proposed. Nevertheless, the fog preventing effect attained has been proved insufficient for preventing an increase of minimum density accompanying continuous processing. Moreover, such an antifoggant, when used in a large quantity, rather causes a decrease in the maximum density.
JP-A-61-70552 proposes a method for reducing the rate of developer replenishment, in which a high silver chloride color photographic material is development-processed while replenishing a development bath at such a rate that overflow does not occur. Further, JP-A-63-106655 discloses a method for assuring processing stability, in which a high silver chloride color photographic material is development-processed with a color developer containing a hydroxylamine compound and a chloride at or above a given concentration.
However, these methods were found to cause the above-described disadvantage, i.e., variation of photographic characteristics in continuous processing with an automatic developing machine, and therefore proved incompetent to solve the problem confronting us.